Veatch Program Areas
Unitarian Universalism
Program Vision: The Unitarian Universalism Program Area supports the growth of the Unitarian Universalism in meaning and in numbers and supports Unitarian Universalists in social justice work.
Goals:
- To support Unitarian Universalist organizations at the
regional and national level that are working to build,
strengthen, and add meaning to the denomination. - To support new, innovative Unitarian Universalist
projects that have the potential for national impact on
the involvement of UUs in social justice work.
Community Organizing
Program Vision: The Community Organizing Program Area supports the development of multi-issue, multi-constituency organizations that deliver concrete benefits to their communities, help their members participate in civic life, and promote an inclusive vision of social justice.
Goals:
- To foster the growth of metropolitan and statewide organizations that combine a grassroots community base with sufficient power and capacity to effect systemic changes in public policy.
- To expand the participation of religious congregations in community-based social change organizations.
- To develop a regional and national infrastructure that can enhance the effectiveness of community organizing through research, training, technical assistance, and collaborative action.
- To support innovative projects that advance the practice of community organizing by adapting traditional methodologies to new issues and new constituencies.
Democratic Participation
Program Vision: The Democratic Participation Program Area seeks to increase the quantity and quality of citizen participation in the democratic process, particularly among historically disenfranchised populations.
Goals:
- To implement structural reform of the electoral system, with particular attention to campaign finance reform.
- To develop new and more effective models for increasing voter participation in low income communities.
- To support the creation and expansion of state coalitions that connect diverse communities and constituencies around a common progressive agenda.
Civil and Constitutional Rights
Program Vision: The Veatch Program Area on Civil and Constitutional Rights seeks to promote social equity and respect for the individual within the community, to protect civil liberties, and to counteract the political power of organized forces that are hostile to civil rights.
Goals:
- To counteract the efforts of the radical right to undermine the constitutional rights of people of color, women, gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender individuals.
- To protect and advance the reproductive rights of women by supporting groups who organize at the local, state and national level for those rights, particularly among low-income women and women of color.
- To support innovative projects that address emerging threats to civil rights and liberties, including police violence and attacks on public education.
Environmental Justice
Program Vision: The Veatch Program Area on Environmental Justice seeks to promote a grassroots environmental movement with an integrated perspective that connects environmental protection with sustainable economic development, racial and social equality, and empowerment of local communities.
Goals:
- To create new organizational models that are inclusive
of cultural differences and committed to building bridges across barriers of race, gender, and class that have historically prevented the environmental movement from being more effective.
- To empower neighborhood residents and workers to obtain and document first-hand knowledge of environmental hazards, groundwater contamination, and industrial pollutants in their communities in order to achieve greater control over community health conditions.
- To strengthen the enforcement of existing environmental laws, and promote new public policies that increase access to information about toxic hazards and encourage the use of environmentally sustainable production technologies.
- To protect tribal lands against environmental exploitation, and defend the sovereign right of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples to control their natural and human resources.
Global Democracy Program Vision: The Veatch Program Area on Global Democracy seeks to assure that the development of an integrated global economy does not undermine environmental protections, community and workplace conditions, or the democratic accountability of political institutions.
Goals: 
Economic Equity and Democracy
Program Vision: The Veatch Program Area for Economic Equity and Democracy seeks to infuse the U.S. economy with the values of equity, democracy and justice and to challenge the systems, policies and institutions that perpetuate economic injustices.
Goals:
- To develop metropolitan and regional coalitions that combine organizing, public policy advocacy, and community-based development strategies to promote an alternative vision of economic organization.
- To enact public policies ensuring that recipients of public subsidies and tax incentives adhere to minimal standards of corporate responsibility and provide living-wage employment.
- To build an infrastructure of national and regional organizations that provide training, technical assistance, policy analysis, and networking opportunities for local economic justice projects.
- To seed new projects that can address emerging trends in the economy that undermine equity and democracy, such as the growth of part-time and temporary work.
Workplace Organizing
Program Vision: The Veatch Program Area on Workplace Organizing seeks to stem the erosion of labor standards in the United States and promote just treatment of individuals in the workplace, with particular focus on low-wage workers.
Goals:
- To develop new models of democratic organization through
which low-wage workers can articulate and represent their own interests.
- To increase collaboration between labor and community organizations on issues of broad public concern, including employment policy, workforce training, child care, health care, occupational safety, and civil rights.
- To increase the engagement of communities of faith in struggles for economic justice.
- To promote democracy, accountability, and a broad justice orientation within the institutions of organized labor.
Infrastructure
Program Vision: The Veatch Infrastructure Program Area seeks to strengthen the organizational capacity of our grantees.
Goals:
- Offer strategic technical assistance to grantees through tailored programs made possible with assistance from minigrant funds: Veatch Program Travel, Networking & Technical Assistance Fund, Veatch Program Fundraising Assistance Minigrant Fund, Veatch Program Organizational Development Fund, and Veatch Program Communications & Campaign Fund.
- Support organizations that provide carefully designed research and policy analysis, popular education and leadership-development programs that benefit grantees across at least three Veatch program areas.
Media, Information, and Communications
Program Vision: The primary purpose of the Media, Information, and Communications Program Area is to strengthen the information and communication capacities of Veatch grantees. The program also seeks to promote democratic access to public media, including a commitment to expanding the numbers and leadership of people of color in the alternative and mainstream media.
Goals:
- To provide sophisticated technical assistance that increases the capacity of Veatch grantees and related groups to effectively communicate their message to the public via the media.
- To help activist organizations challenge unfair and stereotypical media treatment of crime, poverty, immigration, and other "hot-button" wedge issues.
- To promote broader public accountability of media institutions and the development of genuine alternatives to commercial media.
Progressive Philanthropy
Program Vision: The Veatch Progressive Philanthropy Program Area seeks to support initiatives that make philanthropy more responsive to progressive organizations working for social and economic justice.
Goals:
- To promote innovative national and regional strategies to raise more funds for social justice work.
- To support the development of alternatives to the United Way and funding programs that are able to look beyond direct service to support organizing and advocacy strategies for structural social change.
- To fund innovative strategies that involve new individuals and constituencies in giving for social change.
New York Metro Initiative
Program Vision: The Veatch New York Metro Region Program Area seeks to advance economic and social equity on Long Island, in New York City and its environs.
Goals:
- To encourage innovation in organizing styles and models
- To foster greater collaboration among organizers and activists in the New York Metro area.
- To leverage increased philanthropic dollars towards organizing work in the New York Metro area.
- To promote the enactment of progressive public policies at the local, county and municipal level.
- To improve and strengthen relationships between the congregation and our local and regional neighbors.
Special Projects Fund
Program Vision: The Veatch Program Special Projects Fund Program Area seeks to support projects of relatively short duration that promote Unitarian Universalist principles and advance progressive organizing.
Goals:
- To support initiatives and issues of concern to the UU Congregation of Shelter Rock.
- To be responsive to critical issues and strategic opportunities that arise unexpectedly.
- To support initiatives where short-term funding can make a real difference in advancing progressive values.
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"The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock provides support for efforts within the religious and spiritual mission of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock where their purposes are best served by outside agencies acting under the Veatch Program and the Congregation." |
